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CXIII: Dost thou imagine, O Minister of the Sháh
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Dost thou imagine, O Minister of the Sháh in the City (Constantinople), that I hold within My
grasp the ultimate destiny of the Cause of God?
Thinkest thou that My imprisonment, or the shame
I have been made to suffer, or even My death and
utter annihilation, can deflect its course? Wretched
is what thou hast imagined in thine heart! Thou art
indeed of them that walk after the vain imaginings
which their hearts devise. No God is there but Him.
Powerful is He to manifest His Cause, and to exalt
His testimony, and to establish whatsoever is His
Will, and to elevate it to so eminent a position that
neither thine own hands, nor the hands of them
that have turned away from Him, can ever touch or
harm it. |
2 |
Dost thou believe thou hast the power to frustrate
His Will, to hinder Him from executing His judgment,
or to deter Him from exercising His sovereignty?
Pretendest thou that aught in the heavens or
in the earth can resist His Faith? No, by Him Who
is the Eternal Truth! Nothing whatsoever in the
whole of creation can thwart His Purpose. Cast away,
therefore, the mere conceit thou dost follow, for
mere conceit can never take the place of truth. Be
thou of them that have truly repented and returned
to God, the God Who hath created thee, Who hath
nourished thee, and made thee a minister among them
that profess thy faith. |
3 |
Know thou, moreover, that He it is Who hath,
by His own behest, created all that is in the heavens
and all that is on the earth. How can, then, the
thing that hath been created at His bidding prevail
against Him? High is God exalted above what ye
imagine about Him, ye people of malice! If this
Cause be of God, no man can prevail against it; and
if it be not of God, the divines amongst you, and they
that follow their corrupt desires and such as have rebelled
against Him will surely suffice to overpower it. |
4 |
Hast thou not heard what a man of the family of
Pharaoh, a believer, hath said of old, and which God
recounted unto His Apostle, Whom He hath chosen
above all human beings, and entrusted with His Message,
and made the source of His mercy unto all them
that dwell on earth? He said, and He, verily, speaketh
the truth: "Will ye slay a man because he saith my
Lord is God, when he hath already come to you with
proofs of his mission? And if he be a liar, on him will
be his lie, but if he be a man of truth, part at least
of what he threateneth will fall upon you." This is
what God hath revealed unto His Well-Beloved One,
in His unerring Book. |
5 |
And yet, ye have failed to incline your ears unto
His bidding, have disregarded His law, have rejected
His counsel as recorded in His Book, and have been
of them that have strayed far from Him. How many
those who, every year, and every month, have because
of you been put to death! How manifold the
injustices ye have perpetrated ñ injustices the like of
which the eye of creation hath not seen, which no
chronicler hath ever recorded! How numerous the
babes and sucklings who were made orphans, and the
fathers who lost their sons, because of your cruelty,
O ye unjust doers! How oft hath a sister pined away
and mourned over her brother, and how oft hath a
wife lamented after her husband and sole sustainer! |
6 |
Your iniquity waxed greater and greater until ye
slew Him Who had never taken His eyes away from
the face of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great.
Would that ye had put Him to death after the manner
men are wont to put one another to death! Ye
slew Him, however, in such circumstances as no man
hath ever witnessed. The heavens wept sore over Him,
and the souls of them who are nigh unto God cried
out for His affliction. Was He not a Scion of your
Prophet's ancient House? Had not His fame as a
direct descendant of the Apostle been spread abroad
amongst you? Why, then, did ye inflict upon Him
what no man, however far ye may look back, hath
inflicted upon another? By God! The eye of creation
hath never beheld your like. Ye slay Him Who is a
Scion of your Prophet's House, and rejoice and make
merry while seated on your seats of honor! Ye utter
your imprecations against them who were before you,
and who have perpetrated what ye have perpetrated,
and remain yourselves all the time unaware of your
enormities! |
7 |
Be fair in your judgment. Did they whom you
curse, upon whom ye invoke evil, act differently
from yourselves? Have they not slain the descendant
of their Prophet as ye have slain the descendant of
your own? Is not your conduct similar to their conduct?
Wherefore, then, claim ye to be different from
them, O ye sowers of dissension amongst men? |
8 |
And when ye took away His life, one of His followers
arose to avenge His death. He was unknown
of men, and the design he had conceived was unnoticed
by any one. Eventually he committed what
had been preordained. It behoveth you, therefore, to
attach blame to no one except to yourselves, for the
things ye have committed, if ye but judge fairly.
Who is there on the whole earth who hath done what
ye have done? None, by Him Who is the Lord of all
worlds! |
9 |
All the rulers and kings of the earth honor and
revere the descendants of their Prophets and holy
men, could ye but perceive it. Ye, on the other hand,
are responsible for such acts as no man hath, at any
time, performed. Your misdeeds have caused every
understanding heart to be consumed with grief. And
yet, ye have remained sunk in your heedlessness, and
failed to realize the wickedness of your actions. |
10 |
Ye have persisted in your waywardness until ye
rose up against Us, though We had committed nothing
to justify your enmity. Fear ye not God Who
hath created you, and fashioned you, and caused you
to attain your strength, and joined you with them
that have resigned themselves to Him (Muslims)?
How long will ye persist in your waywardness? How
long will ye refuse to reflect? How long ere ye shake
off your slumber and are roused from your heedlessness?
How long will ye remain unaware of the
truth? |
11 |
Ponder in thine heart. Did ye, notwithstanding
your behavior and the things your hands have
wrought, succeed in quenching the fire of God or in
putting out the light of His Revelation ñ a light
that hath enveloped with its brightness them that are
immersed in the billowing oceans of immortality,
and hath attracted the souls of such as truly believe
in and uphold His unity? Know ye not that the Hand
of God is over your hands, that His irrevocable Decree
transcendeth all your devices, that He is supreme
over His servants, that He is equal to His Purpose,
that He doth what He wisheth, that He shall not be
asked of whatever He willeth, that He ordaineth
what He pleaseth, that He is the Most Powerful, the
Almighty? If ye believe this to be the truth, wherefore,
then, will ye not cease from troubling and be at
peace with yourselves? |
12 |
Ye perpetrate every day a fresh injustice, and treat
Me as ye treated Me in times past, though I never
attempted to meddle with your affairs. At no time
have I opposed you, neither have I rebelled against
your laws. Behold how ye have, at the last, made Me
a prisoner in this far-off land! Know for a certainty,
however, that whatever your hands or the hands of
the infidels have wrought will never, as they never
did of old, change the Cause of God or alter His
ways. |
13 |
Give heed to My warning, ye people of Persia!
If I be slain at your hands, God will assuredly raise
up one who will fill the seat made vacant through My
death, for such is God's method carried into effect
of old, and no change can ye find in God's method of
dealing. Seek ye to put out God's light that shineth
upon His earth? Averse is God from what ye desire.
He shall perfect His light, albeit ye abhor it in the
secret of your hearts. |
14 |
Pause for but a little while and reflect, O Minister,
and be fair in thy judgment. What is it that We have
committed that could justify thee in having slandered
Us unto the King's Ministers, in following thy desires,
in perverting the truth, and in uttering thy
calumnies against Us? We have never met each other
except when We met thee in thy father's house, in
the days when the martyrdom of Imám Husayn was
being commemorated. On those occasions no one
could have the chance of making known to others
his views and beliefs in conversation or in discourse.
Thou wilt bear witness to the truth of My words, if
thou be of the truthful. I have frequented no other
gatherings in which thou couldst have learned My
mind or in which any other could have done so. How,
then, didst thou pronounce thy verdict against Me,
when thou hadst not heard My testimony from Mine
own lips? Hast thou not heard what God, exalted be
His glory, hath said: "Say not to every one who
meeteth you with a greeting, `Thou art not a believer'."
"Thrust not away those who cry to their
Lord at morn and even, craving to behold His face."
Thou hast indeed forsaken what the Book of God
hath prescribed, and yet thou deemest thyself to be a
believer! |
15 |
Despite what thou hast done I entertain ñ and
to this God is My witness ñ no ill-will against thee,
nor against any one, though from thee and others
We receive such hurt as no believer in the unity of
God can sustain. My cause is in the hand of none
except God, and My trust is in no one else but Him.
Erelong shall your days pass away, as shall pass away
the days of those who now, with flagrant pride,
vaunt themselves over their neighbor. Soon shall ye be
gathered together in the presence of God, and shall be
asked of your doings, and shall be repaid for what
your hands have wrought, and wretched the abode
of the wicked doers! |
16 |
By God! Wert thou to realize what thou hast done,
thou wouldst surely weep sore over thyself, and
wouldst flee for refuge to God, and wouldst pine
away and mourn all the days of thy life, till God will
have forgiven thee, for He, verily, is the Most Generous,
the All-Bountiful. Thou wilt, however, persist,
till the hour of thy death, in thy heedlessness, inasmuch
as thou hast, with all thine heart, thy soul and
inmost being, busied thyself with the vanities of the
world. Thou shalt, after thy departure, discover what
We have revealed unto thee, and shalt find all thy
doings recorded in the Book wherein the works of all
them that dwell on earth, be they greater or less than
the weight of an atom, are noted down. Heed, therefore,
My counsel, and hearken thou, with the hearing
of thine heart, unto My speech, and be not careless
of My words, nor be of them that reject My
truth. Glory not in the things that have been given
thee. Set before thine eyes what hath been revealed
in the Book of God, the Help in Peril, the All-Glorious:
"And when they had forgotten their warnings,
We set open to them the gates of all things,"
even as We did set open to thee and to thy like the
gates of this earth and the ornaments thereof. Wait
thou, therefore, for what hath been promised in the
latter part of this holy verse, for this is a promise
from Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Wise ñ
a promise that will not prove untrue. |
17 |
I know not the path ye have chosen and which ye
tread, O congregation of My ill-wishers! We summon
you to God, We remind you of His Day, We
announce unto you tidings of your reunion with
Him, We draw you nigh unto His court, and send
down upon you tokens of His wondrous wisdom,
and yet lo, behold how ye reject Us, how ye condemn
Us, through the things which your lying
mouths have uttered, as an infidel, how ye devise your
devices against Us! And when We manifest unto you
what God hath, through His bountiful favor, bestowed
upon Us, ye say, "It is but plain magic."
The same words were spoken by the generations that
were before you and were what you are, did ye but
perceive it. Ye have thereby deprived yourselves of
the bounty of God and of His grace, and shall never
obtain them till the day when God will have judged
between Us and you, and He, verily, is the best of
Judges.
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18 |
Certain ones among you have said: "He it is Who
hath laid claim to be God." By God! This is a
gross calumny. I am but a servant of God Who hath
believed in Him and in His signs, and in His Prophets
and in His angels. My tongue, and My heart, and
My inner and My outer being testify that there is
no God but Him, that all others have been created
by His behest, and been fashioned through the operation
of His Will. There is none other God but Him,
the Creator, the Raiser from the dead, the Quickener,
the Slayer. I am He that telleth abroad the
favors with which God hath, through His bounty,
favored Me. If this be My transgression, then I am
truly the first of the transgressors. I and My kindred
are at your mercy. Do ye as ye please, and be not of
them that hesitate, that I might return to God My
Lord, and reach the place where I can no longer behold
your faces. This, indeed, is My dearest wish, My
most ardent desire. Of My state God is, verily, sufficiently
informed, observant. |
19 |
Imagine thyself to be under the eye of God, O
Minister! If thou seest Him not, He, in truth, clearly
seeth thee. Observe, and judge fairly Our Cause.
What is it that We have committed that could have
induced thee to rise up against Us, and to slander Us
to the people, if thou be of them who are just? We
departed out of Tihrán, at the bidding of the King,
and, by his leave, transferred Our residence to `Iráq.
If I had transgressed against him, why, then, did he
release Me? And if I were innocent of guilt, wherefore
did ye afflict Us with such tribulation as none
among them that profess your faith hath suffered?
Hath any of Mine acts, after Mine arrival in `Iráq,
been such as to subvert the authority of the government?
Who is it that can be said to have detected
any thing reprehensible in Our behavior? Enquire for
thyself of its people, that thou mayest be of them
who have discerned the truth. |
20 |
For eleven years We dwelt in that land, until the
Minister representing thy government arrived, whose
name Our pen is loth to mention, who was given to
wine, who followed his lusts, and committed wickedness,
and was corrupt and corrupted `Iráq. To this
will bear witness most of the inhabitants of Baghdád,
wert thou to inquire of them, and be of such as seek
the truth. He it was who wrongfully seized the substance
of his fellow-men, who forsook all the commandments
of God, and perpetrated whatever God
had forbidden. Eventually, he, following his desires,
rose up against Us, and walked in the ways of the
unjust. He accused Us, in his letter to thee, and thou
didst believe him and followed in his way, without
seeking any proof or trustworthy evidence from him.
Thou didst ask for no explanation, nor didst thou
attempt either to investigate or ascertain the matter,
that the truth might be distinguished from falsehood
in thy sight, and that thou mightest be clear in thy
discernment. Find out for thyself the sort of man he
was by asking those Ministers who were, at that time,
in `Iráq, as well as the Governor of the City (Baghdád)
and its high Counsellor, that the truth may be
revealed to thee, and that thou mayest be of the
well-informed. |
21 |
God is Our witness! We have, under no circumstances,
opposed either him, or others. We observed,
under all conditions, the precepts of God, and were
never one of those that wrought disorders. To this he
himself doth testify. His intention was to lay hold
on Us, and send Us back to Persia, that he might
thereby exalt his fame and reputation. Thou hast
committed the same crime, and for the self-same
purpose. Ye both are of equal grade in the sight of
God, the sovereign Lord of all, the All-Knowing. |
22 |
It is not Our purpose in addressing to thee these
words to lighten the burden of Our woe, or to induce
thee to intercede for Us with any one. No, by Him
Who is the Lord of all worlds! We have set forth the
whole matter before thee, that perchance thou might
realize what thou hast done, might desist from inflicting
on others the hurt thou hast inflicted on Us,
and might be of them that have truly repented to
God, Who created thee and created all things, and
might act with discernment in the future. Better is
this for thee than all thou dost possess, than thy ministry
whose days are numbered. |
23 |
Beware lest thou be led to connive at injustice. Set
thy heart firmly upon justice, and alter not the
Cause of God, and be of them whose eyes are directed
towards the things that have been revealed in His
Book. Follow not, under any condition, the promptings
of thine evil desires. Keep thou the law of God,
thy Lord, the Beneficent, the Ancient of Days. Thou
shalt most certainly return to dust, and shalt perish
like all the things in which thou takest delight. This
is what the Tongue of truth and glory hath spoken. |
24 |
Rememberest thou not God's warning uttered in
times past, that thou mayest be of them that heed
His warning? He said, and He, verily, speaketh the
truth: "From it (earth) have We created you, and
unto it will We return you, and out of it will We
bring you forth a second time." This is what God
ordained unto all them that dwell on earth, be they
high or low. It behoveth not, therefore, him who was
created from dust, who will return unto it, and will
again be brought forth out of it, to swell with pride
before God, and before His loved ones, to proudly
scorn them, and be filled with disdainful arrogance.
Nay, rather it behoveth thee and those like thee to
submit yourselves to them Who are the Manifestations
of the unity of God, and to defer humbly to the
faithful, who have forsaken their all for the sake of
God, and have detached themselves from the things
which engross men's attention, and lead them astray
from the path of God, the All-Glorious, the All-Praised.
Thus do We send down upon you that which
shall profit you and profit them that have placed
their whole trust and confidence in their Lord. |
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